'I will never come back to Mumbai'

It’s terrifying being caught under a collapsing edifice. The sheer panic of being crushed under rubble, not knowing if help will arrive, and wondering if it will arrive too late, lingers long after the flesh wounds have healed, as this survivor of a crumbling building will tell you.

Lucky: Rambharose Rajbhar

“I will never come back to this city now,” claims Rambharose Rajbhar, who was injured when the Piyush Cooperative Housing Society in Dahisar (E) fell apart. Recuperating in Bhagwati Hospital, he swears he’d leave the city the moment he’s gathered his bearings.

The empty building, that claimed seven lives and injured seven others, had collapsed on Saturday morning.

“I had come here during the summer. It had been three months and I was to return on June 24. I was standing below the building talking to my friends when the structure collapsed. My friends lost their lives. After I am discharged from the hospital, I will return to my native place in Uttar Pradesh and never visit Mumbai again.”

Another victim, Pramod Prajapati (40), a vegetable vendor, was shopping for his stall when the building collapsed. He fractured his hip joints and is admitted in the ICU.

Brothers Ajay and Santosh Ghone were also shopping from the Dahisar market for vegetables for their stall located at the Borivli vegetable market when the structure caved in.

“Both of us were loading vegetables in an auto,” said Ajay. “My brother realised that we had forgotten some vegetables and went to get them. Suddenly the building collapsed and a few minutes later I saw him trapped under a pillar. The ambulance arrived soon and Santosh was admitted to Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli. He sustained a lot of bruises.” It was destiny that saved Ajay, he added.

A senior doctor at the hospital said, “Five patients are under our observation. Four have bruises and minor injuries all over their bodies and one is admitted in the ICU with fractures in a hip joint. The joint, scientifically referred to as the acetabulofemoral joint, is the most important part in retaining body balance.”